{"id":250010,"date":"2025-10-25T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/250010\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:12:10","slug":"dodgers-biggest-weakness-exposed-in-world-series-game-1-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/250010\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ biggest weakness exposed in World Series Game 1 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers<\/a> might be baseball\u2019s version of the Death Star.<\/p>\n

But in a raucous World Series opener on Friday night in Toronto, the Blue Jays found their exhaust vent, and triggered an implosion of galactic proportions.<\/p>\n

In a nine-run sixth inning that had Rogers Centre rocking and the previously invincible Dodgers reeling, the Blue Jays smashed open what had been a tied score and rolled to an eventual 11-4 win<\/a> in Game 1 of the World Series.<\/p>\n

They attacked the Dodgers\u2019 one glaring weakness in the bullpen. They executed the kind of game script to which the defending champions have long seemed susceptible.<\/p>\n

Now, Toronto has a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series, and has altered the dynamics of this supposed David and Goliath matchup. Game 2 will be back here on Saturday night. And suddenly, it\u2019s the Dodgers facing an urgent search for answers.<\/p>\n

Even though the Dodgers took an early lead in Game 1, scoring twice in the first three innings against rookie Blue Jays sensation Trey Yesavage<\/a>, Toronto was methodically executing the necessary game plan.<\/p>\n

They kept Dodgers ace Blake Snell<\/a> under constant stress, starting with a 29-pitch first inning in which they left the bases loaded but drove up his pitch count. They finally broke through in the fourth, when Snell \u2014 lacking his usual fastball command \u2014 left a heater down the middle to Daulton Varsho<\/a> that the Blue Jays outfielder whacked to center for a tying two-run homer.<\/p>\n

By the start of the sixth, Snell looked gassed.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

He walked his first batter. He followed that by yielding a single. Then he plunked Varsho with a full-count fastball, loading the bases without recording an out.<\/p>\n

That put Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> in a position unlike any he\u2019d encountered previously this postseason. For much of the month, the Dodgers\u2019 dominant rotation had been able to work out of similar late-inning jams. And the times they couldn\u2019t, Roberts would turn to left-hander Alex Vesia<\/a> to be his primary fireman.<\/p>\n

On this night, though, Snell had nothing left \u2014 having failed to record a single 1-2-3 inning in what became his shortest start of the playoffs, five-plus innings that required 100 laborious pitches.<\/p>\n

Even worse, the Dodgers were playing without Vesia \u2014 having left him off the roster<\/a> while he and his wife deal with what the team described as a \u201cdeeply personal family matter,\u201d one that will almost certainly prevent him from pitching this series.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Thus, Roberts had to look elsewhere among a relief corps that had been the weak link of the team all season.<\/p>\n

His first decision was going to Emmet Sheehan<\/a>, the converted starting pitcher who hadn\u2019t appeared at all in the team\u2019s NL Championship Series sweep. But he was ineffective, giving up an RBI single to Ernie Clement, a run-scoring walk to Nathan Lukes in what started as an 0-2 count, then another RBI single to Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez.<\/p>\n

That put the Dodgers in a 5-2 hole. And, after George Springer grounded into a fielder\u2019s choice, brought Roberts trudging back out to the mound.<\/p>\n

The skipper\u2019s next decision, with the Blue Jays inserting left-handed slugger Addison Barger as a pinch-hitter, was to turn to his next-best left-hander in Anthony Banda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda reacts after giving up a grand slam to Toronto\u2019s Addison Barger in the sixth inning in Game 1 of the World Series.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Four pitches later, Barger detonated the Dodgers\u2019 reactor core.<\/p>\n

Banda threw him an elevated slider on the inner edge of the plate. Barger blasted it to right for the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history.<\/p>\n

A Dodgers team that had given up five total runs in its previous five games, had suddenly yielded seven in one nightmarish inning.<\/p>\n

And the torture would only continue from there, with Banda giving up another two-run home run to Alejandro Kirk later in the inning.<\/p>\n

By the time the dust had settled, the Blue Jays had sent 12 batters to the plate and watched nine of them come around to score. The steady confidence the Dodgers had been building with their bullpen previously, was shattered in a way that won\u2019t be easy to repair.<\/p>\n

\"Toronto's <\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Addison Barger, center, celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam in the sixth inning of Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t even matter that Shohei Ohtani<\/a> \u2014 who, out of a string of early missed chances from the Dodgers, squandered perhaps the biggest one by leaving the bases loaded in the second inning \u2014 eventually connected on a big swing with a two-run homer in the seventh. Or that their offense had gotten into the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen early, chasing Yesavage after just four innings.<\/p>\n

Instead, their fatal flaw had already been exposed. Their most vulnerable weak spot, disastrously exploited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers might be baseball\u2019s version of the Death Star. But in a raucous World Series opener on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4290,136292,52718,136293,18619,18127,4279,5460,35909,8229,36408,22362,99,1599,12378,126266],"class_list":["post-250010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-anthony-banda","tag-barger","tag-basis","tag-big-weakness-resurface","tag-blue-jays","tag-bullpen","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-inning","tag-loss","tag-roberts","tag-snell","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-toronto","tag-world-series-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}